Need info. about poor FM radio reception

[tja]

I'm new & not sure if my issue is germane to the site purpose, but here goes...I often use radio headphones in my home and yard. I'm having trouble getting clear reception of the station that I prefer. Preferably, I'd like to use noise reducing (safety) radio headphones, but the ones I've purchased have terrible reception, as does the one I currently own (purchased from RadioShack - they're not noise reducing safety headphones). Since I've surfed for a better radio and can't seem to find one that works at my home, I've thought that there may perhaps be a FM booster that I could use. Everything I've seen so far requires that it be attached by cable to a receiver. Obviously, this won't work for radio headphones that I use while doing yard work, etc. Does anyone have any suggestions?

 

[buddrousa]

You might use this to hook up to a turner on the station you want and rebroadcast it on an open channel at your home.
5 WATT FM TRANSMITTER TX-99A PLL RANGESTUD ORION 5000mW | eBay

 

[OCO]

You might use this to hook up to a turner on the station you want and rebroadcast it on an open channel at your home.
5 WATT FM TRANSMITTER TX-99A PLL RANGESTUD ORION 5000mW | eBay

And prepare for an eventual visit from the FCC......legal unlicensed FM transmitters for uses as you suggest have power output of a few microvolts measured at a distance of 3 meters. The unit suggested is putting out power literally thousands of times higher than the legal limit. I'm surprised that they aren't even putting the "export use only" caveat on their ads... More info on Part 15 transmitters in this Wikipedia article. A source for legal Part 15 transmitters (as well as "export") is Ramsey Electronics.

 

[buddrousa]

I know these are used by real estate agents all over the United States you can get lower power units it was just the first I saw.

 

[OCO]

I just noticed where this was posted - probably needs to be moved to Electronics in the Tavern....

 

[W2PMX]

Many of the transmitters used by "real estate agents" (when I went to real estate school to become an agent, one of the first things I learned is that 99.99% of "real estate agents" aren't - they're just clerks with licenses) are totally illegal. They're sold an idea and are too cheap to rent a clue.

As far as the original question, unless the station puts up a satellite transmitter closer to you, find another station that comes in better. The only ways to increase the sensitivity of the headphone receiver are a larger antenna (for FM, that's about 4.9 feet) or add a few low noise RF amplifier stages to the receiver (which would require the ability to design RF circuits). There are no "FM boosters" you can use on a setup like that. You could try a "wireless broadcaster, but it has to be low power enough to comply with part 15 of the FCC regs. (The $50 Ramsey unit most likely doesn't.)

 

[OCO]

You could try a "wireless broadcaster, but it has to be low power enough to comply with part 15 of the FCC regs. (The $50 Ramsey unit most likely doesn't.)

I couldn't swear to it, as I've never metered the input to the final, but I've used a Ramsey FM100 for years to broadcast streaming 'net audio (my late wife was addicted to "Old Time Radio") and the coverage using the standard collapsible whip was just about as spec'd for a legal output (in other words, I got coverage on most of a one acre lot with it in the basement of the house). The last ten pages of the Ramsey manuals (FM100 manual here) go in depth on part 95 rules and measurements..When I built the FM100, I naturally also purchased and assembled the addon 1 watt "export only" module. I tried it once - with a set of rabbit ears spread as a dipole, I was shocked to pick it up over a mile away. I was a little nervous over how clean it was, as I sit under one of the approaches to the local airport. Never used it after that...